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Travel News: Why Calgary has a statue of Wayne Gretzky

Canada Sports Hall of Fame opens in the home of the Flames, with a giant statue of the Oilers’ great.

A statue of Wayne Gretzky welcomes visitors to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary. The hall opened July 1 and features hundreds of pieces of sports memorabilia ranging from an Formula One race car to Terry Fox's running shoe. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The latest result of Canada’s attempt to spread its museums out across this excess of geography of ours was the opening on Canada Day of the Sports Hall of Fame in its permanent Calgary home.

It began life in Toronto in 1955 on the Ex grounds, but attendance had been declining since its room-mate, the Hockey Hall of Fame, moved out in 1993.

Located in Olympic Park on the southwest outskirts of Calgary, on the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics, the emphasis is on interactivity, with opportunities to take simulated part in various sports and do things like get in a wheelchair and see how much slower they are than Chantal Petitclerc, Canadian Olympian and winner of 21 medals over five Paralympics.

The museum also houses hundreds of Canadian sports artefacts, including uniforms, medals and equipment used in the nation’s most memorable sports moments.

The price is $12 ($8 for kids), which includes admission to all the galleries and, for Flames fans, a slice of humble pie, served at the foot of the giant statue of Wayne Gretzky, the Edmonton Oilers’ great. www.sportshall.ca.

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Gap Adventures forced to change name in US

Gap Adventures, the huge Canadian adventure travel success story, has lost a court battle that will force it to change its name, at least in the US, where GAP clothing successfully argued it was causing confusion in the marketplace.

Gap, co-founded by a very young Bruce Poon Tip in 1990, has until September 1, according to the court order, “to transition to a new name in the United States.”

The decision was based largely on the fact that when Gap Adventures was founded, The Gap, founded in 1969, was already famous enough for Poon Tip and his co-founder to have known better.

The division only affects the US branch of the company, which operates in a total of 19 countries and had worldwide revenues of more than $87 million in 2007, the year the lawsuit was filed. There’s no word yet on whether they’ll just be re-branding in the US, or if the Toronto-based company will take the opportunity to do a global overhaul.

The Agents’ Choice Awards, organized by Toronto-based Baxter Travel Media, represent the favourite picks in more than 20 categories by Canada’s travel agents.

Jamaica got 1,603 votes, against runners-up Mexico and the Caribbean. With the exception of Mexico City and the Dutch Caribbean, none of the top 10 agents’ picks even recognize the validity of same-sex marriages.

Jamaica has a long and well-documented history of homophobia, including nurturing popular singers who write violently anti-gay lyrics and having governing-party members who call for harsher laws for homosexual behaviour.

Baxter Travel Media did not return a call for comment.

Every kid’s an Eloise at the Plaza — for a price

Kids staying at the Plaza Hotel this summer can up the Eloise ante with the re-opening of the Tricycle Garage, where monied parents (the cheapest room there tonight is $574) can rent their children tricycles to ride through Central Park for $20 for two hours or $40 for the day.

The Tricycle Garage, which is being operated out of the Plaza Boutique, first opened in 1956 in the original wake of the popularity of Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight’s 1955 bestseller, “Eloise,” about a six-year-old girl who lives at the Plaza.

The rental fee includes a helmet and a bottle of water.

Boingo turns 10, offers free WiFi

Anyone who’s spent much time in airports is probably aware of Boingo. Even if you’ve never bothered to click on it when it comes up as a WiFi option on your laptop, you’ll probably have stumbled on the fact that the service offers more than 300,000 hotpots around the world, including 1,435 airports.

As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, until the end of the year, it will be offering 10 minutes of free WiFi to anyone who send them their email address, and 10 days free to anyone who downloads their free software and signs up for a free membership.

Until the business world, and the travel sector in particular, wakes up and realizes they shouldn’t charge for WiFi anymore than they charge for running water or air conditioning, every little scrap like this helps.

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